IN BE DISTBIGT ATTORNEY. Q7
his action with reference thereto; and when the commissioner has disposed
of the case he shall cause the original complaint, together with a‘·brief state-
ment of his action thereunder, and the original recognizance, if any, and copy
of the commitment or rnittimus, duly certified, to be promptly tiled in the
clerk’s otlice of the proper United States court; and before taking bail, when
the prisoner is held for the action of a grand jury, the commissioner should
cause notice of the time and place for hearing the application for bail to be
given to the district attorney.
In the ordinary administration of the law, when complaints were
made, the district attorney was bound to act thereunder, by refusing
to proceed thereon, or by causing examination to be had before com-
missioners, etc. If he was of opinion that the complaint was ground-
less, it was his duty to proceed no further. It is true, that a large
measure of responsibility was thus cast upon him, yet, as he repre-
sented the government that prosecutes offenses, and never prosecutes
the innocent, the duty to determine when complaints were frivolous,
or otherwise, rested primarily with him. Were not this so, he would
make, through his office, the government the agent of private malice
or of blackmail. There must be, in the very nature of judicial admin-
istration, a preparatory examination by the district attorneys as to
private complaints; otherwise, the innocent as well as the guilty would
be alike confounded by indiscriminate prosecutions, at the instigation
of those who have only personal ends to subserve. As the law then
stood, and now stands, the accused, however wronged, pays his own
costs and expenses; so that it often happens that the innocent, when
acquitted, sulfer more than the guilty. Such a condition of aifairs
caused this and other courts to exact careful scrutiny from district
attorneys prior to the prosecution before commissioners or the court.
But under the revenue systems collectors undertook to discriminate in
cases of violations of law, and on their judgment reported or refused
to report alleged offenses. They made themselves thereby judges, in
a modified sense, of such oifenses. Congress cut up (section 838)
such arbitrary power or conduct, by requiring all such matters to be
reported to the district attorney. On the incoming of such reports
it was made the duty of the district attorney to examine the same,
and institute proper proceedings in court, “unless upon inquiry and
examination he shalt decide that such proceedings cannot probably be sus-
tained, or that the ends of public justice do not require that such pro-
eeedings be instituted."
This statutory rule sought to enforce elemental principles, coupled
with an obligation upon revenue oiiicers to report to the district at-
torney. [It is obvious that if the district attorney, in order to accu-
mulate fees, caused judicial proceedings to be instituted on every re-
port so made, not he alone, but other othcers, would devour the gov-
ernment, or the accused, with useless costs and expenses; hence the
wise provision of section 838, viz.:
“And for the expenses incurred and services rendered in all such cases,
[where it was decided not to bring suits,] the district attorney shall receive